Merry Christmas from Us to You!

 

EC120B ZK-IZO 2

Visiting Pauanui airfield this afternoon was the Hamilton based EC120B ZK-IZO2.  It was originally imported in 2018 from Canada by Argus Aviation for Heliview Cromwell.   September 2023 saw it change hands to its current Hamilton private owner.

 

Deer capture in the early 1980's

Another photo from the Graeme Stratton collection showing Joe Keeley about to net a deer from his Hughes 369D ZK-HPG c/n 87-0178D.

ZK-HPG was built as N8679F in August 1977 and served in the US with Offshore Helicopters Inc and Edwards & Associates Inc.  

It was airfreighted to NZ in a DC-10 and became ZK-HPG on 07-01-1980 for Southland Helicopters Ltd of Tuatapere and first flew the following day. It was delivered to Joe Keeley at Taupo on the 9th. Sadly, it was lost on 24-07-1984.

Hmmm !

Murphy Rebel ZK-REB/2 at Nelson

 Denny Capell of Hope, near Nelson registered his Murphy Rebel in August last year:

ZK-REB2 (c/n 707R) was registered to D M Capell of Hope on 31/8/24, making it the fourteenth Murphy Rebel of various models to be registered in New Zealand.

Thanks to Dave Bates who went above the call of duty to take the photo, at the Pugh Road airstrip in Hope.

Air New Zealand's Electric Beta Alia CX 300 at Wellington

After its first flight in New Zealand at Tauranga back on 17 October, Air  New Zealand has been flying their leased Beta Alia CX 300 N401NZ around some of their bases, having visited (as far as I know) Hamilton, Auckland International and most recently Wellington International:

Tim Gorman was at Wellington recently to catch N401NZ flying and thanks Tim for the use of your photo.  I understand that when the Beta Alia goes into service it will fly freight between Wellington and Woodbourne/Blenheim.  Does anyone know if it has flown this route yet?

Aerospool WT9 600 NG Dynamic. ZK-DYN #3 Plus Dynamics ZK-DYN #1 and 2#.

ZK-DYN3 

c/n DY-842D

We popped into Barradale during our recent Friday pie run to catch up with the Drake Aviation Ltd's  Aerospool WT9 600 NG (New Generation) Dynamic ZK-DYN2 c/n DY-842D as registered to them on 29-05-2024.

The 600 indicates the higher all up weight of 598kg - some 50kg higher than the earlier models.

It comes with a glass cockpit, has retractable undercarriage with new shaped wheel covers, a small extra side window, a reshaped fin and rudder plus a flared in glider tow hook.

*********************************************

The two previous ZK-DYN's were also DYNamics

ZK-DYN1

c/n DY038/2003

ZK-DYN1 is c/n DY038/2003 - the first in New Zealand - was test flown as OM-AERO and shipped to NZ and registered to the NZ agent Bruce Drake of Drake Aviation Ltd on 21-01-2004. 

The photo above was taken on the day it was registered.

In about 2009 the wings went back to the factory for the fitment of long-range tanks and winglets. It was delivered to Jim Dillon at Omaka in November 2009 and re-registered as ZK-ZOW on 07-05-2010 Still with Drake Aviation.  

ZK-ZOW at Rangiora on 01-04-2017 with the new wing tips.

This freed up the ZK-DYN letters for the pending arrival of the new demonstrator.

The latest move for ZK-ZOW was to the M & K Blomfield Family Trust of Otautau in December of 2014.

***********************************************

ZK-DYN2

C/n DY375/2010

The second allocation of these registration letters went to the second demonstrator c/n DY375/2010 which became ZK-DYN2 on 06-07-2010 for Drake Aviation Ltd 

Below is a photo of ZK-DYN2 as noted at Omaka on 12-02-2015.

This aircraft has remained with Bruce but was re-registered as ZK-DYD on 22-03-2024 to free up its ZK-DYN registration again for the third and most recent demonstrators arrival.

Above is ZK-DYN2 now as ZK-DYD. A recent photo taken at Barradale.

**************************************************

ZK-DYN3

C/n DY-842D

Another view of the latest ZK-DYN3.

Ibis Magic ZK-MGC Re-Engined

I noted on Trade Me recently that the Ibis Magic GS 700 ZK-MGC is for sale and it now has a 100 HP Zonsen C 100 engine up the front:

ZK-MGC has had an eventful life to date.  After being initially registered on 16/11/11 it was damaged in a forced landing near Wanaka in 13/7/20 and was cancelled on 28/9/20 as destroyed.  It was rebuilt by Custom Aviation at Taieri and was re-registered on 23/4/21.  According to Trade Me after the rebuild it was fitted with a high time on-condition Rotax 912.  However that engine has now been replaced by the Zonsen C 100 engine, and it now has 76 hours on it with no problems reported.  I know of one other aircraft in NZ that is flying pretty well with a Zonsen engine, and there may well be more because they are considerably cheaper than an equivalent (carburetted) Rotax 912.

Zongshen is sometimes shortened to Zonsen (I am not sure why) as on the cowling of ZK-MGC.  I always wondered why Rotax never sued Zongshen for copying their engine so closely but it is probably to do with patents. 

Zongshen C 80 and C 100 aircraft engines are made in Chongqing in China.  The Zongshen company is part of the much larger Zongshen Industrial Group which is a large conglomerate in China and is one of the biggest engine manufacturers in the world.  The company made (genuine I assume) replacement parts for Rotax engines for many years before the patents for the early carburetted versions of the Rotax 912 ran out, and then they turned their experience into building a copy of and competitor to the Rotax 912.  Virtually everything on the Zonsen engine is directly interchangeable with the equivalent Rotax engine.

Sportcruiser ZK-DEU/2 at Ashburton

 CZAW Sportcruiser ZK-DEU2 has recently been advertised for sale on Trade Me:

It looks a bit different with the addition of some neat canopy masking that I guess would be very useful for the upcoming summer.  

The first ZK-DEU was the short lived Associated Farmers Aerial Works Auster B8 Agricola that was built up by the company from spare parts, first flew at Martinborough on 1 March 1971 and tragically crashed near Martinborough on 7 December 1971, killing its pilot.  It has not been posted on the blog so maybe we should address that.

Christchurch Tech stop for N404NA

 Cruising into Christchurch International today, and captured by Tony McFarlin was the Bombardier BD-700-1A11 N404NZ c/n 9356 s listed with TVPX ARS Inc Trustee.

It is no stranger to Christchurch having been noted here back in late June of 2003.

See Here

Microlight Aircraft of New Zealand - Early Unregistered Microlights - Pete James' Mirage M at Aviation Showcase 80

As I have posted previously, Pete James was a very early microlight pilot in the Hamilton area in the late 1970s / early 1980s when microlights were not registered.  He first flew his Easyriser powered hang glider in late 1977 and he then owned a Mirage M weight shift microlight which he demonstrated at Aviation Showcase 80 that was held at Hamilton airport in November 1980.  Pete has sent some photos from this event:  (We will try to get better quality copies of the photos).

The Quicksilver M Ready for action.  It looks like the wingtip of  a Pterodactyl on the left.

Pete James flying his Quicksilver M at Aviation Showcase 80.  he said he was only allowed to hop it at low level.

And parked up outside the old Central Aircraft Maintenance hangar at Hamilton Airport.

The Quicksilver attracted a lot of attention, even being the subject of a newspaper article in the Waikato Times.  Unfortunately the photo that Pete sent isn't big enough to read the article but it begins with "Is it a bird?  Is it a plane?  Or just a hang glider?"  This was topical at that time as the CAD/MOT were still wrestling with what to do with microlights.

EC130B4 ZK-IVP 3

Visiting Pauanui airfield today from Ardmore was EC130B4 ZK-IVP3 which was imported earlier this year from Dubai where it flew with Falcon Aviation Services as A6-FLI.   It is destined for Over the Top Ltd, Queenstown.

 

A Couple of TVAL Aircraft on Recent Flying Weekends

Patrick Baker took lots of photos at the recent TVAL flying weekends at Masterton including these couple from their flying fleet:

The Gerald Thornhill and Carl Swanson built Sopwith Camel replica ZK-JMU was one of the first aircraft in the TVAL fleet and has been recently refurbished in the colours of Hardit Singh Malik of 28 Squadron RFC serial B3887.

And the Achim Engels then Fred Murrin built Fokker D VII replica ZK-TBI that was finished off by TVAL is one of the latest aircraft in the fleet, and is painted in the colours of Willi Gabriel's aircraft 268/18 of Jasta 11.
 

TVAL Flying Weekend at Masterton

The Vintage Aviator are back into their monthly summer flying weekends and the weekend just gone provided great weather for flying WW 1 aircraft.  Patrick Baker was there and took some really nice photos that I will share later but for this post I thought I would focus on the huge new hangar:

The new hangar has been completed and suitably stocked with TVAL aircraft.  In this photo the Nieuport Bebe is on the left while the line up in front of the hangar features the Sopwith Snipe, Albatros DVA, Hanriot HD-1, two newly refurbished SE 5As and a Sopwith Pup.

I have been told that the new hangar doors have an opening to allow for a huge wingspan aircraft which we may or may not see in the future.  It would be amazing if it happens!

Thanks for the photo Patrick.

Rans S7S Courier ZK-JLS

An interesting visitor to Pauanui airfield this morning was the Rans S7 Courier ZK-JLS2.   This was originally registered back in May 2009 and more recently in August 2025 changed ownership to its current owner.

 

Savannahs

There were three ICP Savannah aircraft at the Northern Aviators Club Christmas BBQ at Springhill on Saturday - Bernie Lewis's ZK-LCF, Dave Cull's ZK-ZAV and the Whangarei Flying Club's ZK-JUN:

And interestingly, among the attendees at the BBQ were 2 guys who will have Savannahs flying soon - one new and one ex the Pacific Islands that is on amphibious floats.

We have now had 45 Savannahs of all marks registered in New Zealand to date.

Bill Mannix at Nelson today. 14-12-2025

 The Alan Caudwell built R&B Bearhawk ZK-KTY c/n 1271 about to head over towards Pakawau and Motueka. Note the fin fillet.

Down from the New Zealand International Commercial Pilots Academy at Whanganui was this Cessna A150 Aerobat ZK-ELC c/n A1520787.

This Beech C23 Sundowner 180 ZK-DVC c/n M-1566 has been with the Nelson Based DVC Flyers Syndicate since May of 2016. Still wearing its previous operators marks of Able Tasman Aviation Nelson Ltd - It is about to doddle over to Takaka and return.

The Previous 30 Years of Aircraft Evolution

If there wasn't much change in light private aircraft from the mid 1970s to the current day, by contrast there was quite a change from the mid 1940s to the mid 1970s:

Bruce Lynch's Messenger and Jim Schmidt's Tiger Moth display the Best of British at the Northern Aviators Club Christmas BBQ at Springhill yesterday.  (I must stop taking photos of the Messenger!)

Fifty Years of Aircraft Evolution

Not much has changed!  1974 Cessna 177 ZK-DNX and the latest 2025 Tecnam P2010 ZK-TCN at the Northern Aviators Club Christmas BBQ at Springhill today.
 

Autogyro Calidus ZK-RGJ

Visiting Pauanui airfield this morning was the Autogyro Calidus ZK-RGJ which hasnt featured on this blog before.   It was originally registered new in South Africa in January 2014 as ZU-RRG and in 2023 was exported to NZ being registered ZK-RGJ to an Auckland owner in August of that year.

 

Something Really Different at Wanaka - How About a Max Holste Broussard?

A recent arrival at Wanaka looks pretty spectacular and is set to display at next year's Warbirds Over Wanaka:

The Max Holste MH 1521 Broussard (meaning Bushman I think) photographed at Wanaka recently by Steve Bunting.  It arrived at Wanaka earlier this year from Denmark registered as OY-SLV.  It was built in 1961 for the French military and was civilianised as F-GGKP in June 1990.  It then went to Hungary as HA-SLV in October 1996 and then to Denmark as OY-SLV from May 2013.  It is destined to receive a very French New Zealand registration.

The type was first designed in the 1950s with the prototype flying in 1954.  It is a six seat utility aircraft and is often is referred to as the "French Beaver".  In fact it shares the same Pratt and Whitney R985 radial engine as the Beaver and has similar performance and capability.  

It has been assembled by Twenty24 Aviation at Wanaka and is awaiting registration and test flying.

Thanks very much for the photo Steve.

A brief call into Taieri.

The Airbus MBB-KB117 D-3 ZK-IDH2 c/n 21242 must have seen me coming armed with my camera and tried to avoid me. This into sun shot was taken in desperation.

This helicopter was built as D-KBKR5 by Airbus Industries before joining Helicopters Otago Ltd from 09-01-2024.

On the pad was the slightly younger Airbus MBB-BK117 D-3 (H145) ZK-IDU2 c/n 21300 which was registered to Helicopters Otago on 28-08-2024.

 Over at the Otago Aero Club was their Tecnam P92 Echo Mark II ZK-OAJ c/n 1761. it joined the Club on 25-10-2024.

In the hangar was the Clubs Vans RV-12-UL ZK-OPT c/n 121045.

This was built by Bachelor of Engineering and Technology students of Otago PolyTechnic - with the kit arriving on Campus on 20-07-2017. It first flew at Taieri on 16-08-2022.

Another Photoshoot Flight, with Moth Minor ZK-AKM on 7-12-2025

Before the NZ Warbirds Beaver arrived at Kaipara Flats airfield on 7/12/25, Michael Bach had already flown up in the DH 94 Moth Minor ZK-AKM and this was the Beaver's first photoshoot assignment.  I was invited along to be in the Beaver - what a smooth machine!

Moth Minor waiting in the sun

During Gavin Conroy's photoshoot I was able to get a photo of my own, looking back through the Beaver's rear window.

Taxying back in at NZKF after a successful photoshoot.  Maybe Gavin will share some of his photos in time - I reckon they will be spectacular!

The Photoshoot Beaver for Our Flight of 2 Messengers on 7-12-2025

The conditions were about as perfect as they could be for our photoshoot of the 2 Messengers yesterday and Gavin Conroy was taking his photos from the NZ Warbirds Beaver ZK-CKH that arrived at Kaipara Flats airfield with its port door removed:

The Warbirds Beaver and Messenger - photographer and subject.  Colourful aircraft and green grass!

Lift off from NZKF in Messenger ZK-AKE2.

The Beaver was flown by Pete McCombe and it ranged up alongside us to starboard.

Then followed an intensive period of close formation flying by Michael Bach and we were later joined by Graeme Wood in the other Messenger off to our port side.  It was neat to see Gavin directing Michael to fly up or down or in and out with his gloved hands (as well as occasional radio messages).  And as a courtesy I could only take photos of the Beaver when Gavin was between shooting as it is not a great look to have a photo with the subject photographing back.  You can see how great the conditions were.

The Two Messengers on the Ground at NZKF Today 7-12-2025

 

After today's photoshoot the two Messengers pulled up for another photo - ZK-AKE2 and ZK-CMM2..  That is the Moth Minor ZK-AKM in the background.

Some more from the New Zealand Airline Academy at Oamaru

 At Oamaru yesterday afternoon 06-12-2025 I managed to catch five of the recent additions to the New Zealand Airline Academy.

Tecnam P2008 JC ZK-NYA is c/n 1265.

Tecnam Mentor ZK-NYC is c/n 1121.

Tecnam P2008 JC ZK-NYX being c/n 1266.

ZK-NYY c/n 156 is a Tecnam P2008 LSA.

Tecnam P2008 ZK-NYZ is c/n 196.